Software applications, such as virtual machines (VMs), may be executed by a group, or “cluster,” of host computing devices. Each VM creates an abstraction of the physical computing resources, such as a processor and memory, of the host executing the VM and executes a “guest” operating system, which, in turn, executes one or more software applications. To the guest operating system and software applications, the abstracted resources may be functionally indistinguishable from the underlying physical resources.
Within a particular host computing device, virtual switches can be used to communicate data packets between the VMs and between other nodes in a network. For example, virtual switches that emulate physical Ethernet switches have been implemented within host computing devices to enable the communication of data packets between VMs.
As with physical data packet switches, virtual switches need certain networking parameters to be configured to establish working connections between nodes. When a node is virtual, such as a virtual switch, the networking parameters to be configured include a virtual port. In a large network, the number of nodes to be connected can include hundreds of host computing devices and thousands of VMs. Centralized management systems have been developed to allow an administrator to manage network configuration tasks. Centralized management systems require working network connections between the virtual switches and the management system to communicate configuration information. Additionally, these centralized management systems typically limit direct user modification of nodes in order to prevent a loss of communication caused by an incorrect user modification of a node. However, in some cases, configuration changes called out by the management system cause communications between the management system and the managed node to be lost and restoring communication can be a labor-intensive and tedious task.